(Props if you know where the above picture's from) Someone asked me what "breadwinner" really meant and where it came from - I thought that it'd be an interesting blog post. Unfortunately, my research produced somewhat skimpy results as to the origin of the word in terms of unique or intriguing facts, unlike my previous post on the phrase "tastes like chicken." Quite simply, "breadwinner" is a straightforward term and doesn't have any complex history. The definition of the word itself is "a member of a family whose wages supply its livelihood," which has the tendency to refer to the male head of the household. The first known use of this word was in 1771 or more commonly 1818 when it was used to refer to the "skill or art by which one makes a living." A compound word, the bread in "breadwinner" refers to the food that was a staple for many households throughout history and for the overall general referential term for food, and winner is what you all know it as. The breadwinner was the person who was able to "win" the most "bread" for the family, most likely the one who had the highest paying job. It's a term that many still use today!

Having a butternut squash soup during the Alternative Spring Break made me want more, so I bought myself a large squash and needed to make something with it. I realized that I hadn't had rice in a long time; this recipe sprung about from my desire to have some. Yum yum. As I am sure you have noticed, I tend to make very simple dishes so hopefully you all can give them a try too!

Step 1: Ingredients (serving size: 2-3 small dinner portions)

salt (to taste)

1/4 butternut squash, cubed

1 inch piece of ginger, minced or grated

1 tbsp unsalted butter

1 cup jasmine rice, uncooked

2 cups water

Step 2: Preparing the vegetables
You can either grate or mince the ginger. I personally opted for mincing because I enjoy crunching on ginger in my food. Start a saucepan with your water and ginger while you chop the butternut squash into inch pieces; put this in the pan too.

Step 3: Adding the rest of the ingredients
Add the rice and butter. You may put on salt as you see fit now. Make sure to drop the heat to low so it can simmer until the rice is cooked and the squash has softened.

Step 4: Completion
Before I finished the dish completely, I added some garlic salt which wasn't mentioned in the Ingredients section because I am a sucker for garlic salt. Whoo!

The last day of the Alternative Spring Break! We went out with a laborious bang actually, checking out a community garden and working on the campus farm again. The whole thing ended with a fun bonfire in the Duke Forest with good cheers and local beers with sausages. It felt like the end of Spring Break and was hard to believe that we actually had a few more days left. I definitely want to start reading much more about food and production now, and hopefully I will touch base with the other participants every once in a while and go on fooding adventures.

So the first place we went was SEEDS community garden. They function to provide space for the Durham community to grow, learn about, and maintain food. They've also developed programs to help inner city youth work on creating a sustainable farming career/job through their marketable crops. We helped by digging out some invasive Bermuda grass to make way for an edible flower bed. It reminded me of good ol' Key Club days. I really enjoyed doing it except for the fact that it was hitting springtime so my nose was running from potential allergies coming back.

We headed to the Duke Campus Farm after lunch to finish up some things we started the other day. I helped put up wire along the tops of the poles for the deer fence. It surprisingly took the whole time because of how many kinks were in the wire as we unraveled it. It was like a giant Slinky that kept getting tangled. Others worked on putting the fence up and some did a whole vegetable bed. I helped push the planter a few times so that was fun at least!

After it got really cold, we called it quits but still stayed outside as we headed to the bonfire site. It was a pavilion area in the Duke Forest where we started a fire and ate a lot of chips w/salsa and hummus, baked sweet potato, and sausage from Farmhand. We also rounded up some local beers and had some apple-lemon crumble thing one of the participants made. It was a good end to the night, and I tiredly made my way to bed around 10:30pm (which is why this post is backlogged). What a wonderful start to Spring Break!

As I was uploading my pictures, I realized that I had taken over 60 for the day so there may be more in this post but I will certainly be mindful of how many with which I will bombard this post. We had an earlier start to today than yesterday but certainly made use of the full day. Picture time:

Our first stop of the day was at Ninth Street Bakery where we got to meet the owner (Frank) and tour the facilities. The bread there looked amazing, and I was quite impressed that they had been organic since day one of operation. They gave us some pastries at the end of the tour that were delicious!

Our next stop was Prodigal Farm which was a goat dairy farm. What was interesting here was that the owners were actually not farmers their entire life but picked up the practice quickly after they realized that their career paths were not their callings. Katherine, the woman, used to work as a lawyer in Manhattan for about 15 years and was on her way to becoming a federal judge; her husband was a general contractor for Wall Street businessmen. Despite the typically affluent and enviable careers they had, goat farming became their new and enjoyable life. They did, however, mention how they banded together with other farmers in the area, did research, and fought against Homeland Security's potential project of building a Biological Weapons Defensive Facility nearby. Thanks to being smart and getting facts straight, the farmers won! Anyhow, back on track, we got to see where the goats were milked as well as the goats themselves. They were honestly quite cuddly - I did not expect them to be so gentle and loving. I really liked how they took a school bus and converted it into a sleeping shed, hah! We then, as a group, helped move brush and felled trees to clear some space before sitting down to a delicious lunch of a corn & okra quiche, goat leg, and lemon pound cake. I also took a bite of their Jerusalem Artichoke, which looks nothing like artichoke and tastes like sweet jicama. I even played a bit w/their dogs Oliver (black Lab) and Simon (Collie).

We visited Four Leaf Farm next which was quite a delight. The farm was only two acres in size but they were a bit space-conscious and managed to produce a lot of produce in the small amount of space they had in comparison to other farms. In fact, this was the same place that provided the produce for Watt's Grocery, one of the restaurants we had visited the night before. The owner, Helga, was very sweet and charming, explaining a lot of the crops and how they did certain things. We were also graced by their resident cat who was a fiesty little orange tabby with whom I played. I took many pictures of him as well as he got underfoot sometimes or just rolled around in vegetable beds he wasn't supposed to. All of the produce looked beautiful from what I could see, and I completely understood why a restaurant would want to work with them. It was fantastic.

We returned back to our home base and worked on some dinner. Squash curry soup, salad, tomato mozzarella bruschetta w/spinach & arugula pesto, and sauteed chard filled our bellies before a dessert of sweet potato-y goodness. I was in charge of doing the greens but was given instructions/a recipe from the person who meant to do them but had to leave. I don't think that they turned out all too well though; they were a bit bland but still edible. Perhaps I should've taken more creative license with them. Oh well. Anyhow, we had a speaker come to talk about GM foods and her work with the ETC Group. It was a pleasant evening of conversation about food in general and policy though I did more listening than chiming in. This is an area of food that I have no clue about but luckily the conversation was lively and I was able to learn what I could by just listening. We only have one more day of this all but I'm so glad that I've been a part of this program. It has definitely educated me a lot more about the wonders of food and the local food movement. As aforementioned, I took a lot of pictures and they have not all been posted. However, if you would like to see more, you can look on my Facebook album here.

Luckily for us, the second day of the Alternative Spring Break: "On Being a Locavore" started a bit more relaxed and later in the day. I missed the bus and didn't quite get a breakfast with everyone but did snag a tangerine so hoorah. Anyhow, again with the pictures:

The first thing we did was learn how to can and preserve stuff from one of the coordinators. She did a strawberry sauce thing that seemed quite sugary and delicious. I knew nothing about canning before so this was quite the lesson; I'll definitely have to try it sometime. I'll share what I learn when I do!

We took a trip over to the Bull City Burger and Brewery, which hasn't opened up yet but we were special, hah. The owner spoke to us in his storage space about his vision and mission for the restaurant. Everything is meant to be environmentally friendly and using as much local materials & ingredients as possible. The above picture is of the tables that will be in the restaurant which are made from barns that have been taken down in the area. It was exciting to hear about all the developments he has lined up for this place - I definitely want to visit once it has opened. A fun PR move that he has made for his restaurant was inspired by Willy Wonka and more information can be found on his website about it! To make a long story short, Seth (the owner) hid 5 "golden bulls" around Durham for people to find and left clues online daily. Those who find the bulls get a free weekly meal for a whole year; apparently 4 of 5 have been found. I'll make sure to keep my eyes peeled!

Our next stop was Fullsteam Brewery. I had been there before but was excited to get a tour when we went because I had no background or foreknowledge of anything related to breweries and their operations. The office manager there gave us a run-down of how beer is brewed and the different types that they carried (made from local ingredients). I had tried all of the beers the last time I went except for their "First Frost," which wasn't available when I went before. This time it was so I bought a nice 9 oz. of this persimmon-based drink and had a good time chatting w/some program-mates. The beer was quite rich and dark in taste - not very "beer-like" in the traditional sense that others may be used to. I say that you should give it a try just to see if you like it. If not, the cream ale and Workingman's Lunch there are both pretty neat.

The next stop on our "Restaurant Hop" was Piedmont Restaurant where we paired off with a buddy and chose a starter & entree between the two of us. My buddy and I started off with some crostini to be spread with chicken liver pate, mustard seeds, and/or a creamy, cheesy whitefish. There was also lard and pickled turnips on the plate/board. Our entree was some quail with pork fat, a marmalade, and rapini over a sweet potato waffle. We got to speak with the chef after the delicious meal and guess what? He apparently changes the menu every single day based on the products he gets in. That was insane to hear. I would be quite stressed myself if I had to constantly create new dishes every day. This cooking model was based off of his use of local produce and meats - the creations were based on availability. It made sense and seemed to be something that would keep him and his staff on their toes but my oh my, how crazy. The food was fantastic though so he gets a lot of admiration and praise from me for sure! I think the only complaint I really heard was that the portions were a bit small but I expected it from an upper scale restaurant anyhow.

The last leg of our hop was Watt's Grocery, a well-known establishment in the community and amongst Duke students. It was our second dinner of the night but somehow we all found more room for some more "gourmet" food. The cuisine was Southern in style but with a bit more finesse than a typical Southern diner. We did another pairing off to share entrees but I sat at the smaller table so we split up two starters and a side to begin. The hushpuppies with basil mayo, winter cheese plate, and french fries with balsamic ketchup prepared our stomachs for our entrees thereafter. My dinner buddy and I went with a dish of rabbit with Italian sausage over a bed of Anson Hills polenta, goat cheese, and greens. Then our table decided to spoil ourselves with four desserts which we passed around and tasted twice each - Espresso Pot de Creme, Pineapple Upside Down Cake, Peanut Butter Parfait, and Flourless Chocolate Cake. They each had an interesting twist from the chef that made them to-die-for. I believe everyone in the program left feeling ridiculously stuffed but happy. Tomorrow holds some bakery, farming, and more cooking - hoorah!